This is one of my favorite quotes. It may also explain why my knitting (and thus my knitting blog) has slowed to the speed of cold molassess. I think the problem I am facing is that I have a reached a point with my knitting that I require a design that still has some mystery for me. A sock that is the same as other socks but just a different stitch pattern doesn’t have the challenge that it once did. I want clever and tricky in my knitting. I want to learn something new. I want to get to the same end result but from an entirely different route. I want to be surprised from beginning to end. I want it to be fresh and trendy but practical.

In theory, all of that is great but it comes with a price. Those types of designs are not easily found. Mindless knitting it is not. Patience and time is required to knit tricky and clever. New and surprising requires constant attention.. These are qualities in short supply here at chez’ Some Knitting. Essentially I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. Is there a fiber equivalent of that analogy?

What do you do when your knitting inspiration stalls?

A brief comment from Lynn during last week’s sit and knit prompted me to pull out my longest enduring project, my evening shawl.  Last I put it down, I had completed the third of twelve color sequences.  It should be noted that I had all the yarn required to work through the fourth sequence at that time.  I know this because the only new color from three to four is silver.  Except I didn’t.  Somehow olive had grown legs and wandered off.

I have physical evidence that olive had been present.

I have photographic evidence from a previous post.

I tore apart my left over stash. I looked where all the other colors were patiently waiting their turn. I even accused my husband of taking it.  Nope, nada, gone.

I finally gave up.  I clicked confirm of my purchase of one skein of #3610 - light olive.  The same color as this skein that waited until I recieved a UPS tracking number to make itself visible again.

Monday may get a bad rap, but I can’t wait.  If only because then this week will be officially over.

Every time my path crossed with this skein, I would instantly think of my intentions to knit Icarus. There was never a doubt as to the pattern that yarn should be used for. Still, I did not cast on.  I march to my own offbeat drum. Independent and eccentric quirky unique are good words to describe me. Sometimes too good. I can acknowledge when everyone else is right. But I won’t enjoy it. Why? Because I wasn’t first, second, or even fifty-seventh. Not a redeeming character feature but there you have it. I am not just independent; I am stubbornly-dig-my-heels-in-headstrong independent.

Recently, I needed something easily memorized and preferably lace. Icarus was a perfect match. The yarn was a perfect match to Icarus. The only thing that didn’t fit was me. It is a popular pattern. The more popular it became, the more I was determined to not “give in”.  I am not comfortable with popular.  Even when something is popular for a darn good reason . . .  simple but not boring, well-suited for strong variegated colors not just solid yarns.   

This time I didn’t listen.  Instead, I pulled the yarn out, wound it into a cake, found the appropriate needles, and casted on. I loved working the stitches almost from the very beginning! My need to be different, my unfounded fear of not being seen as unique, dissolved with each column of yarn overs I added. No one was going to think less of me for being the 1253rd person starting Icarus. It was a perfect fit. Even if I had to be forced to see it.

I know there is a lesson in here somewhere.  Probably some point to be made about letting go of fears, enjoy something for the sake of the doing, or learning that my own opinion is the only one that matters at least with my knitting.  I’ll have plenty of time to ponder while I have this shawl on my needles.

Do you have a project, knitting or other, that you have been reluctant to start? If so, what is holding you back? 

Hubby:  Are you frogging that sock?
Me: No, I’m just ripping it back a few rows.
Hubby: I thought frogging is what you did when you went backwords.
Me: Frogging is when you rip the whole thing out and start over. Tinking is when you unknit stitch by stitch.  Ripping is somewhere in between.
Hubby:  So ripping is when you tadpole.

I have also done some mental cleaning house as well.  As is often the case, one makes a decision with expectations of a certain outcome.  However, the result rarely meets expectations exactly.  Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse, but almost always different than the intended vision.  Such is the case with my decision so long ago to sell patterns wholesale only.  For reasons too long and convoluted to detail in a single post, I am beginning to offer patterns by download in addition to wholesale.  Not that I want to deny you a post that would rival War & Peace in length, but I still have to clean under the beds and tackle the paper mountain that is our computer desk.  I have priorities and sleeping sometime between now and going to work tomorrow is one of them.

Over the future days, or if I’m truthful weeks, I’ll be adding more “add to cart” buttons to more patterns.  But for today, I’ve begun with these. 

Bois Blanc
Split hem and welted details make this a fun sweater to wear. While virtually no finishing and bulky weight yarn make it a quick piece to knit. The pattern is sized from 34.5” to 50.25”. Knit in the round with bulky weight yarn and US 10.5 (6.5mm) needles.
Click here for more details

Woven Waves
Toe-up socks with an easy to memorize and fun to knit stitch pattern. The unique gusset placement on the sole of the sock adds interest without changing the overall fit of the sock. The pattern is written for double point needles and the two-circular method. The socks are worked with US2 (2.75mm) needles and fingering weight yarn.
Click here for more details.

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Scowl)
A great accessory for the cold winter months, this combination cowl and scarf knits up quickly. Since the skill level is for an advanced beginner, it is a wonderful pattern for all knitters. One size fits all, it uses approximately 220 yds (200 m) of DK weight yarn and a US 5 (3.75mm) 16? circular needle.
Click here for more details.

In the meantime, I hear a dust bunny calling my name in the spare bedroom.

I can show you the yarn I dyed with Sonya.  She has some great pictures.  Go on, click the link, I’ll wait.  She brought over some knitted blanks and we set to work with the K*ool-aid.  Having dyed yarn at the store, I knew it was alot of work to make hand-painted yarn. Instead, I gave into my lazinesschose to tie-dye my blank.  This method also allowed me more time to hang out and watch Sonya work talk with a friend.

The cake looks very different from the blank.  I think once it is knitted up, it will have a tweedy look to it.   Of course, it is taking all my will power to not cast on and find out.  I can only knit so many things at once. And I must get some of the design work off my needles first.

I don’t normally block socks.  After all, my feet work just fine to stretch them into the proper shape.  However, as these don’t fit me and Caesar has been shedding all over, I mean gaurding them are a gift, I gave them a quick bath and a light blocking.  I’m glad I did.  The amount of red dye that exhausted from the yarn was amazing.  I know that red dye never really exhausts but this was still more than I expected.

Pattern: None, just a standard toe up plain stockinette sock with a short ribbed cuff.
Size: Mens shoe 11.5 wide
Yarn: Regia Kaffe Fassett color#4259
Needles: Magic loop, US 1.5 (2.5mm) - 40″ circular
Notes: I originally started these with the intent of following the riverbed style from Cat Bordhi’s new Pathways book. However, I found that the way she constructs the gusset gives the socks a little too much room in the arch to fit my dad well. When I had to start them a second time, I decided the traditional construction would work better.

Just in case you were wondering how wide an 11.5 wide foot really was.

What does one do when there is no TV, radio, computer games, Internet surfing, ravelry-ing, blog reading to keep one entertained?  I chose to invent new ways to play solitaire, knit, and do all I could to keep the white wine from getting too warm.  Cleo chose to nap.  Truthfully, I don’t think she noticed the lack of power at all.  Hubby didn’t notice the lack of power either because he had chosen to be in the great north of Michigan a few days prior to the blackout.

 I also discovered how much of my to-do list could be accomplished without the TV, radio, computer games, Internet surfing, ravelry-ing, and blog reading to help me procrastinate to do first.  There was some photo taking of my woefully behind ABC pics, classroom notes for my upcoming classes - Focus on Socks and Fit, and some number crunching for some future patterns.

I almost regretted the power coming back on.  But then I remembered my fondness for cold milk, email, and Deadli*est Catch. 

ETA: I almost missed learning that Claudia had put up my pattern and yarn donation.  If you are able and so inclined, donate to a good cause.